Fundraisers

[Woe]

For our area events, we get $80 an hour. You have to be a non-profit and have 8 people working the entire time.

[Stephi Rae]

Team 1983 has experienced some difficulties with monney in the past, and are anticipating a possibly difficult year ahead of us if some of our former sponsorships fall through for the coming year.

All that aside, it is my opinion that sponsorship from a business that gets excited and is interested in being a long term sponsor is the best way to go. Though we have not yet achieved this, it is something that we have begun to chase.

We believe that having a business plan, or documentation of budget, fundraising techniques and general team information is a solid asset to generating community interest in your program.

Two of our annual fundraisers generated about $10,000 apeice this year that we think we will be able to continue for many years to come. The first is a student letter writing campaign. Each student is required to send a bare minimum of 5 letters to family, friends, acquaintances and local community members or companies, with a team overview and gentle request for a contribution. We greatly encourage students to send more than 5, and this has proved very influential in increasing community interest and awareness. It is also key to send thank you letters, and a sort of team update to these contributors, so they are aware of what your team has been able to accomplish. (This also tends to make them more likely to contribute again the next year)

Another fundraiser was our spaghetti dinner and dessert auction. Local families buy tickets, which is the only cost they pay for food, music entertainment, and a presentation from the team. There is then an auction where we sell both regular auction items and desserts for them to eat or take home. We also have a "Fund-a-skunk" part of the auction, where people can donate money to send a specific student to competition (approximately $250 per competition per student) or just a general donation for this purpose.

Our seemingly best policy is that each student member is required to raise $250 for each competition that they plan to attend. This helps to get the students motivated to fundraise, specifically if you give them a beneficiary cut of what is raised at each team fundraising event that they attend.

I believe there are a couple of different business plans in the white papers section, I know that Team 1983's is there, and also at www.ahsrobotics.us. Hope this helps you! If you have any questions about our plan, or some of our ideas, feel free to PM me or email me at stephanie.hoag@gmail.com

[GeorgeTheEng]

Our team runs a battle of the bands event at our school twice a year. Usually in early December and late May. We've got bands from the school (a requirement for various reasons that at least one member must be a student in our school).

It's a fair amount of work, but honestly little overhead. The school provides the venue and the sound system. The bands bring thier own instruments. Our costs are usually related to things like t-shirts for give aways and sales, some costs for refreshments at intermission, and prizes for the winners. We run between 5 and about 8 bands.

We average between $2000 and $2500 a show depending on expenses and how many people show up.

PS: If anyone happens to be in South Jersey next weekend, this Spring's show will be May 31, 6 (I think) to 11pm in the Performing Arts Center at Rancocas Valley Regional High School in Mount Holly, NJ.